Threshold

“I just mopped the floors yesterday.” I said as I complained about all the rain we have been getting lately to my husbands mom this morning. However a couple hours go by and I’m praising the Lord. I was sitting there grumping about my entryway again when suddenly I remembered the day my husband carried me over the threshold of our house on our wedding day, I looked at all the nose marks our dog Rosie has left on the window and start to think about all the different beginnings in our life that has gotten us this far today. That’s when the Lord spoke to me in my heart. You see to me, a threshold is defined as any point of entryway. You see many times throughout the Bible, there are stories where the threshold is always being guarded. Examples: 2kings 22:4, 2Chronicles 34:9, Esther 2:21, Jeremiah 35:4. In life when things are guarded it tends to mean it’s something special or of high value. In Pslams 84:10 David even states “four a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” In some versions it says “… I would rather stand at the THRESHOLD of the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.” You see, the enemy will always be there at the threshold of opportunity. Satan will always have your hand on the door knob trembling, filling us with doubt and holding us back from a spiritual beginning. But do not be afraid for in Revelations 3:20 the Lord states “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.” In life, there are plenty of hard choices and experiences and it’s up to us on who we choose to flood our homes with. Who we invite over our threshold. In Ezekiel 10:4 it states “Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory.” When things seem impossible we must trust in the Lord. When Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Issac in Genesis 22, Abraham told his son when being questioned on where the lamb was to offer to the Lord that “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Sure enough as you read the story you see later in the same passage that God provided a ram for Abraham and Isaac to sacrifice. “But what if I run from God?” “What if I Fail?” “What if I’m to afraid?” Well my friends, here is the goodnews. When you find yourself filling your mind with the “What ifs” remind yourself that God will always be there waiting for you to open the door and invite him in. How do I know this? Well let’s look again at the Bible. In Isaiah 6, when the Lord spoke it clearly states “… and the threshold shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” The Lord SHOOK the THRESHOLD. This wasn’t placed here for no reason at all. This was clearly stated in the Bible for a reason. Take a look at Matthew 14:22-33 when Jesus was walking on water he told Peter to come. However when Peter stepped onto the water he became afraid and began to sink. Much like a house falling down when an unsteady foundation shakes. As Peter began to drown, Jesus never left his side and when he called out to Jesus to save him it says that “Jesus IMMEDIATELY reached out his hand and took hold of him.” Even though Peter doubted God the Lord was still there, waiting. You see this isn’t the only symbolic story in the Bible where something had to be shaken to the core, essentially knocked down completely to be brought back up. Take the walls of Jerusalem for example. So you see, the enemy’s mission is to destroy our trust with the Lord. To place doubt in our faith and hope in Jesus. Destroying our confidence we hold with God, keeping our hand on the knob of new beginnings with Christ, hesitant to turn the knob and open the door. But we MUST flood our homes with the presence of God. Invite him into your hearts and minds, place your hope in the one who plans our futures and knows our purpose. I remember growing up hearing that delayed obedience is disobedience. Open the door today, take hold of your mind and soul and step over that threshold into a new beginning with Christ. The next time you see your threshold, remember to pray and invite the Lord into your life and home. For me as I sit here and look at the mess of a threshold I have right now, I will praise the Lord for all the thresholds (new beginnings) He has placed in my life, and the ones to come. Will you do the same?